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Why are they all about Leo? Do whatever you want of course i just find it odd that you devote so much time to someone you aren't a fan of.
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Are*obnoxious. ' and another inserted '. My grammar is phone crippled.
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ignore if you want..no one is asking you to read..they are reviews, not discussion pieces
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Was referring to your personal attack on hashtag, not your bloated and barely readable reviews.
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what a hypocrite...turn your fingers to yourself
Toodles!
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I just did. I'm finger blasting myself in the bathroom. Feels damn good, too!
Toodles!
Toodles!
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The Outlaw Josey Wales
Eastwood, 1976
Still one of my favorite Eastwood flicks. Plenty of fun quotes that I annoy the **** out of my friends with, as well as some rootin', tootin' shootin'! Well directed with plenty of memorable performances from a great cast.
Foxes
Lyne, 1979
I am a sucker for a coming-of-age flick, and this is no exception. Sadly, it's not a particularly exceptional film. It's cool to see Foster already flexing her acting muscles, even though she is still very young here. The rest of the players are a mixed bag. Scott Baio, Cherie Currie and the rest of the kids do just an adequate job, while Sally Kellerman is miscast, coming off as wooden in the scenes she shares with Foster, who upstages her at every turn. Still, a fun watch for fans of the genre, especially if you grew up in the era the film was made.
Would you Rather
Levy, 2012
No thanks, I would rather not.
Avengers : Infinity War
Russos, 2018
Still a whole ton of fun, even it suffers a bit on home screens. My theatrical viewing felt pretty epic, while the home viewing felt a bit less so. I watched this with a few people who had seen varying amounts of the material leading up to the film, and none of which had seen Infinity War yet. The guy who had only seen The first Avengers flick and I think the first Guardians of the Galaxy was pretty much lost, and didn't know who most of the characters were, so none of the emotional moments resonated with him, and he kept asking a lot of questions about who people were and why they were involved.
This is a good action flick, but you clearly need to be fairly invested in the MCU to get the most of the viewing experience, so on its own, probably not the best Marvel film. I like it whole lot, though, so I will through a 4 at it for now.
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“It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance.” ― Thomas Sowell
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Foxes
Lyne, 1979
I am a sucker for a coming-of-age flick, and this is no exception. Sadly, it's not a particularly exceptional film. It's cool to see Foster already flexing her acting muscles, even though she is still very young here. The rest of the players are a mixed bag. Scott Baio, Cherie Currie and the rest of the kids do just an adequate job, while Sally Kellerman is miscast, coming off as wooden in the scenes she shares with Foster, who upstages her at every turn. Still, a fun watch for fans of the genre, especially if you grew up in the era the film was made.
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A Most Violent Year
An oil supplier tries to live a relatively clean life in a very corrupt and criminal landscape.
J.C Chandor is an interesting filmmaker. His movies are small scale but nonetheless they are well made. What is a well made movie ? a movie that is original to some extent. It has a directorial vision behind it. It is not a movie made by a group of executives. Actors are cast due to their talent and not attractiveness. The movie is very much a New York movie. Set in 80s. There is nothing heightened about it. The movie is very grounded. So my question has always been, why would a director choose to do a movie so low profile and so slow and moody and unmemorable. For starters the director can make only these kinds of movies. May be it has something to do with his skill set limitation or this is the budget he could get for the movie and this is the way to complete the movie at that budget. So the system is built to prevent untested director to make unmemorable, soon to be forgotten movies however good they are. The only way up is to make them uniquely good at that budget and increase the profile of the project by getting the projects recognized at various awards circuits. One of the hurdles these movies have is, directors at Chandor's level aren't given much leeway to make an edgy movie because it could easily fail miserably. There are safe Oscar movies like lady bird / the post and risky Oscar movies like Dunkirk / the big short. Risky movies are much easier to fail critically and financially if something goes wrong than safe movies. So, the producers don't want the movie to fail. They want a much more solid guarantee on a movie to get Oscar attention. These opposing challenges prevent new filmmakers from breaking into mainstream more often through these well made non risky movies. But in reality , not all these directors and most of them for that matter can't be the next Chris Nolan or next Tarantino. Most of them if given 100 million $ will fail miserably. So its a challenging task to find needle in hay stack.
The movies' protagonist Oscar Isaac is a calm non-confrontational character. The movie effectively portrays the life of a typical CEO of a company. Every waking day they have 10 challenges or things that needs their attention and all of them are important and risky. This movie's protagonist has 4 situations he has to deal with - a rival company waging a business war , a land deal to close, a looming investigation by law enforcement and a slightly unhinged wife with a criminal family. The director does a great job of dealing with complexities and nuances of these colliding situations and the character at the center of all this. Oscar Isaac effectively portrays a guy who never breaks. He is always calm and collected. Jessica Chastain portrays an unhinged wife who wants to involve her family, a mob family in this matters. David Oyelowo plays a law enforcement officer who is much more practical than idealistic. The oil supply war involves stealing the carrier tanks and taking away the oil by competitors. Its done very well. But the only weak link in the movie is a subplot involving a Person of Color whose life is destroyed amidst this oil war. It felt ham fisted. The movie was working without it but for some reason they felt the need to include it.
Its an example of how the little guy gets screwed over for others mistakes where as powerful just survive any challenge.
This movie was largely ignored during awards season of the year its released and I can see why. A movie needs certain kinetic energy to pull audience into it and show then a good time. This movie always keep them at a distance. It doesn't take advantage of some dramatic scenes as well. There is police raid at house but even that's played more as a example for "a decent guy forced to act unlawful due to circumstances" rather than a thrilling suspense building scene. I can see why director controlled the urge/trapping of having that kind of scene but nonetheless some of the scenes in movies are there for a reason. Road less traveled is less traveled for a reason. My biggest critique about the movie is that, even though a lot happens in the movie its feels to the audience that nothing happens. Our protagonist has no character progressions , he ends at exactly the same position where he began. It does have a directorial stamp but one that audience won't recognize because it doesn't feel that strong or distinct.
An oil supplier tries to live a relatively clean life in a very corrupt and criminal landscape.
J.C Chandor is an interesting filmmaker. His movies are small scale but nonetheless they are well made. What is a well made movie ? a movie that is original to some extent. It has a directorial vision behind it. It is not a movie made by a group of executives. Actors are cast due to their talent and not attractiveness. The movie is very much a New York movie. Set in 80s. There is nothing heightened about it. The movie is very grounded. So my question has always been, why would a director choose to do a movie so low profile and so slow and moody and unmemorable. For starters the director can make only these kinds of movies. May be it has something to do with his skill set limitation or this is the budget he could get for the movie and this is the way to complete the movie at that budget. So the system is built to prevent untested director to make unmemorable, soon to be forgotten movies however good they are. The only way up is to make them uniquely good at that budget and increase the profile of the project by getting the projects recognized at various awards circuits. One of the hurdles these movies have is, directors at Chandor's level aren't given much leeway to make an edgy movie because it could easily fail miserably. There are safe Oscar movies like lady bird / the post and risky Oscar movies like Dunkirk / the big short. Risky movies are much easier to fail critically and financially if something goes wrong than safe movies. So, the producers don't want the movie to fail. They want a much more solid guarantee on a movie to get Oscar attention. These opposing challenges prevent new filmmakers from breaking into mainstream more often through these well made non risky movies. But in reality , not all these directors and most of them for that matter can't be the next Chris Nolan or next Tarantino. Most of them if given 100 million $ will fail miserably. So its a challenging task to find needle in hay stack.
The movies' protagonist Oscar Isaac is a calm non-confrontational character. The movie effectively portrays the life of a typical CEO of a company. Every waking day they have 10 challenges or things that needs their attention and all of them are important and risky. This movie's protagonist has 4 situations he has to deal with - a rival company waging a business war , a land deal to close, a looming investigation by law enforcement and a slightly unhinged wife with a criminal family. The director does a great job of dealing with complexities and nuances of these colliding situations and the character at the center of all this. Oscar Isaac effectively portrays a guy who never breaks. He is always calm and collected. Jessica Chastain portrays an unhinged wife who wants to involve her family, a mob family in this matters. David Oyelowo plays a law enforcement officer who is much more practical than idealistic. The oil supply war involves stealing the carrier tanks and taking away the oil by competitors. Its done very well. But the only weak link in the movie is a subplot involving a Person of Color whose life is destroyed amidst this oil war. It felt ham fisted. The movie was working without it but for some reason they felt the need to include it.
Its an example of how the little guy gets screwed over for others mistakes where as powerful just survive any challenge.
This movie was largely ignored during awards season of the year its released and I can see why. A movie needs certain kinetic energy to pull audience into it and show then a good time. This movie always keep them at a distance. It doesn't take advantage of some dramatic scenes as well. There is police raid at house but even that's played more as a example for "a decent guy forced to act unlawful due to circumstances" rather than a thrilling suspense building scene. I can see why director controlled the urge/trapping of having that kind of scene but nonetheless some of the scenes in movies are there for a reason. Road less traveled is less traveled for a reason. My biggest critique about the movie is that, even though a lot happens in the movie its feels to the audience that nothing happens. Our protagonist has no character progressions , he ends at exactly the same position where he began. It does have a directorial stamp but one that audience won't recognize because it doesn't feel that strong or distinct.
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/ \ This movie has a terrible mistake in the beginning. Some guys stop the car in front of the truck, so they can hijack the truck. Once they are in the truck, the car disappears ... That sucks haha
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Shaun of the Dead
A mild mannered electronic salesman is forced to rise up-to the occasion during a zombie apocalypse.
I think Edgar Wright's British origins put him at a greater disadvantage to cultivate a bigger fan base. For me he is an auteur. His directorial style is very distinct. The way he works with his editor to cut shots and insert zooms is unique. But his style is very niche. It has that UK countryside feel to it. That makes the movie extremely hard to market internationally. The dialogue has a sense of uniqueness and flare to them that reminded me of Tarantino but in a good way. Since the tone of the movie is extremely comedic you can't really compare them with twisted movies of Tarantino. So he is unique in that aspect. Whats interesting about the film is that the circumstances and situations the characters in the movie are being put into are entertaining.
The movie starts of by showing the daily routine of characters. It makes a social commentary about the self important nature of society and how long it takes for people to realize something is wrong in the current society. It also explores how human relationships and priorities and quite frankly humanity forces people to veer of ideal mechanical plans and settings. The movie slowly descends into pretty dark stuff. The film forces humans in the movie to exhibit full range of emotions in the apocalyptic setting and not just survival as it happens with most of the movies from this genre. The apocalypse even forces the protagonist to be more committed to his family, girlfriend and most importantly be a leader.
The negatives are related to the directorial potential of Edgar Wright. His movies are extremely specific. Not just in geography but also style. I can't really imagine him doing a epic scale movie. His sensibilities are not weighty enough to carry the huge set pieces in a big budget movie like the way Tarantino does. Baby driver did show potential but it was still a thief movie. Unless he pull off a Spielberg. I don't really see him expand on the scale of his movies.
A mild mannered electronic salesman is forced to rise up-to the occasion during a zombie apocalypse.
I think Edgar Wright's British origins put him at a greater disadvantage to cultivate a bigger fan base. For me he is an auteur. His directorial style is very distinct. The way he works with his editor to cut shots and insert zooms is unique. But his style is very niche. It has that UK countryside feel to it. That makes the movie extremely hard to market internationally. The dialogue has a sense of uniqueness and flare to them that reminded me of Tarantino but in a good way. Since the tone of the movie is extremely comedic you can't really compare them with twisted movies of Tarantino. So he is unique in that aspect. Whats interesting about the film is that the circumstances and situations the characters in the movie are being put into are entertaining.
The movie starts of by showing the daily routine of characters. It makes a social commentary about the self important nature of society and how long it takes for people to realize something is wrong in the current society. It also explores how human relationships and priorities and quite frankly humanity forces people to veer of ideal mechanical plans and settings. The movie slowly descends into pretty dark stuff. The film forces humans in the movie to exhibit full range of emotions in the apocalyptic setting and not just survival as it happens with most of the movies from this genre. The apocalypse even forces the protagonist to be more committed to his family, girlfriend and most importantly be a leader.
The negatives are related to the directorial potential of Edgar Wright. His movies are extremely specific. Not just in geography but also style. I can't really imagine him doing a epic scale movie. His sensibilities are not weighty enough to carry the huge set pieces in a big budget movie like the way Tarantino does. Baby driver did show potential but it was still a thief movie. Unless he pull off a Spielberg. I don't really see him expand on the scale of his movies.
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Mission: Impossible - Fallout (Christopher McQuarrie, 2018) -
Considering the sharp escalation of the last couple of installments, this is vaguely disappointing if only because it mostly manages to maintain the current standard rather than escalating it further. It's also a little hard to appreciate the effort that's gone into the action when it doesn't always get reflected so well on a visual level.
Jason Goes To Hell: The Final Friday (Adam Marcus, 1993) -
Nine films in and I'm still not sure how exactly to rate Friday the 13th movies - if nothing else, I do appreciate how it gets even more gory and batsh*t with its new lore involving demonic body-snatching that gives it an unlikely edge over any number of the franchise's repetitive camper-killing shenanigans.
The Incredible Shrinking Man (Jack Arnold, 1957) -
About as stock-standard as a '50s sci-fi can get with its title-as-high-concept, Atomic Age anxieties (both external and internal), and of course an excuse to include "giant" creatures for the hero to fight. Holds up just fine in terms of both special effects and storytelling.
Jason X (Jim Isaac, 2001) -
The One Where Jason Goes To Space only seems to confirm my theory that the weird Friday movies tend to have an edge on the more conventional ones and it certainly shows with this one that doesn't do too badly at leaning into its far-fetched high-concept.
Twilight (György Fehér, 1990) -
I'm in two minds over this bleak Tarr-adjacent murder mystery that layers on the atmosphere something fierce with its patient methods of building mise-en-scène through long slow takes and a thoroughly haunting leitmotif, though I question whether or not the core story might be a little too slight for its own good.
Mulholland Dr. (David Lynch, 2001) -
Still have to re-watch Blue Velvet before I can settle on a favourite Lynch, but something tells me it might not end up being this one. It's certainly Lynch's cinematic sensibilities at their most "refined" and it moves at a surprising clip for such a deliberately turgid mess of dream logic, though that may well be because it's comparatively easy to figure out the basic structure underneath the seemingly-random vignettes and twists.
Pink Flamingos (John Waters, 1972) -
After three viewings, I wonder if I might just cap my rating for this at 3.5 because, to quote Videodrome, "it has a philosophy" that lends it overt nastiness a strange sense of substance but perhaps not enough to make it hold up all that well on repeat viewings (cult following be damned). Still, we'll see how it holds up on viewing number four.
Quai des Orfèvres (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1947) -
Quite the solid detective story that revolves around the rocky relationship between a pair of theatre players and how they end up being connected to the suspicious death of a wealthy patron.
Festen (Thomas Vinterberg, 1998) -
It's always interesting to see which films are worth re-watching whenever they pop up on MUBI and I'm glad that my choice to re-watch this was rewarded by it holding up exceptionally well.
The Flying Guillotine (Ho Meng-hua, 1975) -
I've fallen quite far behind on watching Shaw Brothers movies and I might as well get back to it with a rather distinctive (if not too amazing) entry involving the usual tales of romance and loyalty only with flying god-damn guillotines thrown into the mix.
Considering the sharp escalation of the last couple of installments, this is vaguely disappointing if only because it mostly manages to maintain the current standard rather than escalating it further. It's also a little hard to appreciate the effort that's gone into the action when it doesn't always get reflected so well on a visual level.
Jason Goes To Hell: The Final Friday (Adam Marcus, 1993) -
Nine films in and I'm still not sure how exactly to rate Friday the 13th movies - if nothing else, I do appreciate how it gets even more gory and batsh*t with its new lore involving demonic body-snatching that gives it an unlikely edge over any number of the franchise's repetitive camper-killing shenanigans.
The Incredible Shrinking Man (Jack Arnold, 1957) -
About as stock-standard as a '50s sci-fi can get with its title-as-high-concept, Atomic Age anxieties (both external and internal), and of course an excuse to include "giant" creatures for the hero to fight. Holds up just fine in terms of both special effects and storytelling.
Jason X (Jim Isaac, 2001) -
The One Where Jason Goes To Space only seems to confirm my theory that the weird Friday movies tend to have an edge on the more conventional ones and it certainly shows with this one that doesn't do too badly at leaning into its far-fetched high-concept.
Twilight (György Fehér, 1990) -
I'm in two minds over this bleak Tarr-adjacent murder mystery that layers on the atmosphere something fierce with its patient methods of building mise-en-scène through long slow takes and a thoroughly haunting leitmotif, though I question whether or not the core story might be a little too slight for its own good.
Mulholland Dr. (David Lynch, 2001) -
Still have to re-watch Blue Velvet before I can settle on a favourite Lynch, but something tells me it might not end up being this one. It's certainly Lynch's cinematic sensibilities at their most "refined" and it moves at a surprising clip for such a deliberately turgid mess of dream logic, though that may well be because it's comparatively easy to figure out the basic structure underneath the seemingly-random vignettes and twists.
Pink Flamingos (John Waters, 1972) -
After three viewings, I wonder if I might just cap my rating for this at 3.5 because, to quote Videodrome, "it has a philosophy" that lends it overt nastiness a strange sense of substance but perhaps not enough to make it hold up all that well on repeat viewings (cult following be damned). Still, we'll see how it holds up on viewing number four.
Quai des Orfèvres (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1947) -
Quite the solid detective story that revolves around the rocky relationship between a pair of theatre players and how they end up being connected to the suspicious death of a wealthy patron.
Festen (Thomas Vinterberg, 1998) -
It's always interesting to see which films are worth re-watching whenever they pop up on MUBI and I'm glad that my choice to re-watch this was rewarded by it holding up exceptionally well.
The Flying Guillotine (Ho Meng-hua, 1975) -
I've fallen quite far behind on watching Shaw Brothers movies and I might as well get back to it with a rather distinctive (if not too amazing) entry involving the usual tales of romance and loyalty only with flying god-damn guillotines thrown into the mix.
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Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0
I really just want you all angry and confused the whole time.
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Mulholland Drive is only 5th or something for me. Someone brought up that it was supposed to be a TV Pilot (or originally was or whatever) so it feels scatterbrained even for Lynch's fragmented way of telling stories, think i agree with that. Still great tho.
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Seen in August Pt.1
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Pretty sure I’ve never watched a Looney Tunes short before (I didn’t really like them as a kid). It’s very creative in how it tries to mess with the concept of an animation. Mel Blanc really does add a lot of comedy to it with his voice.
This film tells of the people who live in those very scummy areas of cities, people who are generally not very productive or have a shred of decency. I didn't entirely hate the character of Johnny like everyone else seems to. He has a nice air of sarcasm to him and his philosophical debates are very interesting. He is a total jerk though even with those qualities: He sexually harasses women, he thinks he's intellectually superior to everyone who doesn't agree with his opinions etc. The music is beautiful. The direction and writing from Mike Leigh is impeccable (Some scenes are really beautiful, the dialogue isn't boring etc.). The best scene was definitely Johnney talking about the apocalypse with the security guard.
+
You can never get enough of young Michael Caine. The first third of it was a bit boring, but they make up for it with a great heist. The joke involving doors was really funny. The chase scene was awesome and so was that cliff-hanger.
This is our first surviving feature lengthen animated film? God it’s beautiful. I’ve never seen animation like this before, and to think it were all hand made by a small group of people. The silhouetting, the painted backgrounds, the score, the effects; It’s all utterly mesmerising. My only critique is that entire section dedicated to Aladdin’s backstory: It felt really pointless and messed with the film’s pacing.
[RE-WATCH]
+
Yup, it’s the Wizard of Oz. What can I really say?
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A time travel movie set in one location with no effects and only 4 characters? Sounds like MY cup of tea! They take a relatively simple set of events and present them in the most interesting and mind-boggling of ways. I liked how the first third of the film kinda felt like a horror movie. I will say that there were a couple of sound issues (Stuff far away is completely audible sometimes) and that a character decision towards the end made me absolutely fuming with anger.
+
I think this might be my first Turkish film, and I liked it. The direction is pretty great, considering the abundance of lovely looking shots (Some of them silhouetted). I was expecting that the dirty-looking cinematography was going to bug me but it didn't, it added to the mood of the film. There's one thing that's really holding down the film for me thought and I can't put my finger on it: It's either the pacing or the length of the film. We have lots of scenes in the film where nothing is really happening (Or sometimes nothing is happening). I think that was a terrible idea, the nice visuals kept me from getting bored though. I think the abundance of those scenes actually lessened the impact of scenes necessary to the plot (That intense af scene in the car, the ending etc.). I could imagine enjoying this film a whole lot more if it was trimmed to a shorter running time.
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Look guys, I’m not the guy to go around watching’ this kind of stuff. It was just one of those shorts that they show before the film.
Silly out of 10. You could say that it’s a kiddie version of Deadpool, but the plot of this film is actually way more engaging than Deadpool’s (A lot of the meta jokes were better aswell). It’s really cool to see a 2D animated film again. While there are the titular fart jokes, they actually have some really dark ones that are really funny. The voice acting was very good, was very happy to hear Bojack Horseman as Slade. There were also a ton of catchy songs in it.
+
This film is a complete oddity. I had no interest whatsoever during the first half, utter apathetic and unfunny. The second half however? A blast. I was on the edge of my seat wondering if they would get out ok. Also I don't think I'll ever hear a policeman sing 'Old McDonald' that enthusiastically in my life ever again.
+
Pretty sure I’ve never watched a Looney Tunes short before (I didn’t really like them as a kid). It’s very creative in how it tries to mess with the concept of an animation. Mel Blanc really does add a lot of comedy to it with his voice.
This film tells of the people who live in those very scummy areas of cities, people who are generally not very productive or have a shred of decency. I didn't entirely hate the character of Johnny like everyone else seems to. He has a nice air of sarcasm to him and his philosophical debates are very interesting. He is a total jerk though even with those qualities: He sexually harasses women, he thinks he's intellectually superior to everyone who doesn't agree with his opinions etc. The music is beautiful. The direction and writing from Mike Leigh is impeccable (Some scenes are really beautiful, the dialogue isn't boring etc.). The best scene was definitely Johnney talking about the apocalypse with the security guard.
+
You can never get enough of young Michael Caine. The first third of it was a bit boring, but they make up for it with a great heist. The joke involving doors was really funny. The chase scene was awesome and so was that cliff-hanger.
This is our first surviving feature lengthen animated film? God it’s beautiful. I’ve never seen animation like this before, and to think it were all hand made by a small group of people. The silhouetting, the painted backgrounds, the score, the effects; It’s all utterly mesmerising. My only critique is that entire section dedicated to Aladdin’s backstory: It felt really pointless and messed with the film’s pacing.
[RE-WATCH]
+
Yup, it’s the Wizard of Oz. What can I really say?
+
A time travel movie set in one location with no effects and only 4 characters? Sounds like MY cup of tea! They take a relatively simple set of events and present them in the most interesting and mind-boggling of ways. I liked how the first third of the film kinda felt like a horror movie. I will say that there were a couple of sound issues (Stuff far away is completely audible sometimes) and that a character decision towards the end made me absolutely fuming with anger.
+
I think this might be my first Turkish film, and I liked it. The direction is pretty great, considering the abundance of lovely looking shots (Some of them silhouetted). I was expecting that the dirty-looking cinematography was going to bug me but it didn't, it added to the mood of the film. There's one thing that's really holding down the film for me thought and I can't put my finger on it: It's either the pacing or the length of the film. We have lots of scenes in the film where nothing is really happening (Or sometimes nothing is happening). I think that was a terrible idea, the nice visuals kept me from getting bored though. I think the abundance of those scenes actually lessened the impact of scenes necessary to the plot (That intense af scene in the car, the ending etc.). I could imagine enjoying this film a whole lot more if it was trimmed to a shorter running time.
-
Look guys, I’m not the guy to go around watching’ this kind of stuff. It was just one of those shorts that they show before the film.
Silly out of 10. You could say that it’s a kiddie version of Deadpool, but the plot of this film is actually way more engaging than Deadpool’s (A lot of the meta jokes were better aswell). It’s really cool to see a 2D animated film again. While there are the titular fart jokes, they actually have some really dark ones that are really funny. The voice acting was very good, was very happy to hear Bojack Horseman as Slade. There were also a ton of catchy songs in it.
+
This film is a complete oddity. I had no interest whatsoever during the first half, utter apathetic and unfunny. The second half however? A blast. I was on the edge of my seat wondering if they would get out ok. Also I don't think I'll ever hear a policeman sing 'Old McDonald' that enthusiastically in my life ever again.
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Shaun of the Dead
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Favorite Movies
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Bicycle Thieves (Vittorio DeSica, 1948) -
Another instance where I can respect its position as one of the greatest films ever made but am still a little hesitant to reflect that in my actual rating beyond the all-around greatness of a 4/5. You shouldn't need me to tell you how good it is, though.
Resident Evil: Vendetta (Takanori Tsujimoto, 2017) -
While I do realise that there is a limit to the appeal of watching the animated Resident Evil movies, I do think that this is at the very least a step up from 2012's Damnation and offers some outlandish action-horror shenanigans in the process.
Chariots of Fire (Hugh Hudson, 1981) -
Extremely dry even by the standards set by Best Picture winners. While there is an iconic (if anachronistic) Vangelis score in the mix and a half-decent story surrounding its leads and the trials they face on and off the running track, it's not a terribly engaging piece of work in the end.
Wolf Children (Mamoru Hosoda, 2012) -
What sounds like it could have been a messy trainwreck of a premise - a young woman falls in love with a werewolf and struggles to raise their unruly half-wolf/half-human children - actually manages to show significant emotional substance in Hosoda's capable hands as it effortlessly shifts back and forth from tragic to triumphant and any combination thereof.
Freddy vs. Jason (Ronny Yu, 2003) -
I wasn't expecting anything too great from this cross-over (and there are plenty of ways in which it may well be as terrible as it sounds on paper) but it's not completely devoid of entertainment value as it pits these fire-and-ice killers against one another and the group of teens who are not as bad as you'd expect.
The Triplets of Belleville (Sylvain Chomet, 2003) -
A noble attempt at building an off-beat, bittersweet tale that involves gangsters kidnapping cyclists and the old ladies who try to rescue them that does has its moments (the eponymous triplets performing musical numbers, for instance) but never coheres into something particularly great even across its brief, carefully-paced running time.
Play It Again, Sam (Herbert Ross, 1972) -
One of the many things I find irritating about Woody Allen is that he can come up with some genuinely promising high-concepts - in this case, a film critic taking life lessons from an imaginary Humphrey Bogart - and yet make notably poor use of them (though he arguably improves upon this concept with The Purple Rose of Cairo).
Bananas (Woody Allen, 1971) -
What starts off as a promising political satire where Allen's shiftless slacker goes on a series of misadventures in a Central American banana republic becomes a somewhat mirthless cavalcade of jokes. Its core subtext holds up, but the movie around it doesn't.
Tom Jones (Tony Richardson, 1963) -
Is it me or are the small handful of comedies that actually win Best Picture not all that funny in the first place? (Obviously, it's me - or is it?). In any case, this bawdy 18th-century farce is largely passable but ultimately not without its merits and thankfully improves as it progresses.
Wendy and Lucy (Kelly Reichardt, 2008) -
A short, effective feature about a woman living on the fringe of society who faces a series of escalating problems when she is stranded in a small town. While it probably didn't help that I already knew how it ended (a certain MoFo spoiled it in this very thread many years ago while giving it 1/5 - word of advice, everyone, don't do unmarked spoilers even if you hate the film), it's a testament to the film (and Michelle Williams in particular) that knowing that didn't hurt the film too much in the long run.
Another instance where I can respect its position as one of the greatest films ever made but am still a little hesitant to reflect that in my actual rating beyond the all-around greatness of a 4/5. You shouldn't need me to tell you how good it is, though.
Resident Evil: Vendetta (Takanori Tsujimoto, 2017) -
While I do realise that there is a limit to the appeal of watching the animated Resident Evil movies, I do think that this is at the very least a step up from 2012's Damnation and offers some outlandish action-horror shenanigans in the process.
Chariots of Fire (Hugh Hudson, 1981) -
Extremely dry even by the standards set by Best Picture winners. While there is an iconic (if anachronistic) Vangelis score in the mix and a half-decent story surrounding its leads and the trials they face on and off the running track, it's not a terribly engaging piece of work in the end.
Wolf Children (Mamoru Hosoda, 2012) -
What sounds like it could have been a messy trainwreck of a premise - a young woman falls in love with a werewolf and struggles to raise their unruly half-wolf/half-human children - actually manages to show significant emotional substance in Hosoda's capable hands as it effortlessly shifts back and forth from tragic to triumphant and any combination thereof.
Freddy vs. Jason (Ronny Yu, 2003) -
I wasn't expecting anything too great from this cross-over (and there are plenty of ways in which it may well be as terrible as it sounds on paper) but it's not completely devoid of entertainment value as it pits these fire-and-ice killers against one another and the group of teens who are not as bad as you'd expect.
The Triplets of Belleville (Sylvain Chomet, 2003) -
A noble attempt at building an off-beat, bittersweet tale that involves gangsters kidnapping cyclists and the old ladies who try to rescue them that does has its moments (the eponymous triplets performing musical numbers, for instance) but never coheres into something particularly great even across its brief, carefully-paced running time.
Play It Again, Sam (Herbert Ross, 1972) -
One of the many things I find irritating about Woody Allen is that he can come up with some genuinely promising high-concepts - in this case, a film critic taking life lessons from an imaginary Humphrey Bogart - and yet make notably poor use of them (though he arguably improves upon this concept with The Purple Rose of Cairo).
Bananas (Woody Allen, 1971) -
What starts off as a promising political satire where Allen's shiftless slacker goes on a series of misadventures in a Central American banana republic becomes a somewhat mirthless cavalcade of jokes. Its core subtext holds up, but the movie around it doesn't.
Tom Jones (Tony Richardson, 1963) -
Is it me or are the small handful of comedies that actually win Best Picture not all that funny in the first place? (Obviously, it's me - or is it?). In any case, this bawdy 18th-century farce is largely passable but ultimately not without its merits and thankfully improves as it progresses.
Wendy and Lucy (Kelly Reichardt, 2008) -
A short, effective feature about a woman living on the fringe of society who faces a series of escalating problems when she is stranded in a small town. While it probably didn't help that I already knew how it ended (a certain MoFo spoiled it in this very thread many years ago while giving it 1/5 - word of advice, everyone, don't do unmarked spoilers even if you hate the film), it's a testament to the film (and Michelle Williams in particular) that knowing that didn't hurt the film too much in the long run.
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Tom Jones (Tony Richardson, 1963) -
Is it me or are the small handful of comedies that actually win Best Picture not all that funny in the first place?
__________________
5-time MoFo Award winner.
5-time MoFo Award winner.
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User Lists
Deadpool 2
Leitch, 2018
Still fun, if perhaps not quite as fresh as the first. Reynolds carries the film, with most of the jokes landing pretty well. Not sure they can take this to three films before the vibe, but i am sure they will try.
Perfume : The Story of a Murderer
Tykwer, 2006
Twyker continues his approach he established in Lola Rent with aggressive editing and his continued obsession with redheads.
The film looks amazing, and the sound design is well done, but on a thematic and to a smaller extent a moral level, I wasn't as much on board. This film has been getting some buzz around the boards lately, and I am glad I watched it, but I am not as big a fan as some seem to be. Calibre
Palmer, 2018
Enjoyed this one quite a bit. An excellent little thriller that unfolds realistically in a tense and methodical way. Everything follows, and there are some great performances across the board.I liked the camerawork and sound design here, as well as the minimal score.
Scream 4
Craven, 2011
A pleasant surprise. I have always liked the first film, but gave up after the third in the series, as things had clearly run their course. Glad I decided to finally watch this, as it may be the most fun of the bunch. It keeps the tongue firmly planted in cheek for the entire run, and even drifts into Scary Movie parody at times, but for some reason, it all works. Clever and fun, but I doubt I would watch it again, as I think it's just a one-time ride.
The Endless
Benson & Moorhead, 2017
MINOR SPOILERS
OK, I am now officially a fan of Benson and Moorhead. Before I watched this, I thought I had only seen one of their previous films, a little indie horror/romance called Spring. I had a nice surprise while I watched their latest, which is a science fiction film in which two men return to visit a UFO death cult they had escaped 10 years prior. Turns out I had seen another one of their films, which was another sci-fi horror genre blend from 2012, Resolution. That film feature two friends hunkering down in a cabin in the desert, as one friend attempts to help the other get clean from a severe drug addiction. It featured a couple of interesting twists, and established some cool concepts in the world of the movie. This latest film ended up paying homage to the 2012 picture in a really cool way, that gave my wife and I a really cool "Aha" moment, as everything clicked into place. The Endless is strong enough on its own, as these filmmakers deliver an interesting and thought-provoking science fiction blend once again on what appeared to be a minuscule budget. Still, it was really cool to see how these guys tied the two films together in a really interesting way that only served to enhance both films.
I definitely recommend catching both flicks in the order of their release.
Clear and Present Danger
Noyce, 1994
My wife hadn't seen the Jack Ryan stuff, so we have been watching them here and there. I think I like Patriot Games a bit more, even though this one cranks up the action a bit. The antagonists in the movie border on cartoonish at times, and Willem DaFoe always tend to pull me out of movies for whatever reason. Ford is good, as usual.
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★
Sliding Doors (1998) - Howitt
One wonders how a story exploring how life spins completely on chance could be so … utterly predictable and boring; a b-movie, break-up story with no life shattering consequences---even for the people involved. Way, way back in the day when Gwyneth Paltrow was the reigning movie queen with her posh British accent.
400 Days (2015) - Osterman
A private corporation wants to do a dry run for their first commercial trip to Mars with a deep flight simulation. Living in a weightless environment for 14 months would turn your body into complete jelly, and tasks like simply standing up would be impossible once you returned to earth However, they merely bury their astronauts 3 meters underground for the same amount of time, avoiding the entire problem and making it instead, a nonsensical isolation experiment. I couldn’t buy into the silliness.
★★
The Hippopotamus (2017) - Jencks
An ex-poet, soon to be ex-critic hits rock bottom is when he is sent to review a terrible Shakespeare play (cleared inspired by the film 300---sprayed on abdominals and cod-pieces) and begins to correct their diction aloud until the enraged actor/director leaps from the stage and charges him in the audience. This alcoholic curmudgeon doesn’t stay amongst unemployed for long and is immediately pressed into service as a debunker of miracles happening on an English Estate. Poetry equips you for this? The only attraction here is the bitchy dialogue.
Train to Busan (2016) - Yeon
This film explains the proliferation of Zombie films; they have completely devolved into paint by number affairs that can be churned out like sausages. The only real hitch is finding a producer willing to underwrite the next opus in special effects makeup. Case in point, a character in the film actually states the dramatic problem of the film: the hero is an amoral, financial flesh-eater making everyone around him totally miserable; late in the film it’s revealed his company was responsible for the outbreak, but other than that, there is not actual ounce of dramatic development on this front for the entire film. Merely subtracting characters from the plot simulates perfectly a satisfying, dramatic resolution of the story---which it isn’t.
★★½
Return of the Secaucus Seven (1979) - Sayles
The director takes some summer stock actors he was working with and slots them into a film about a group of former college students commemorating turning the big three-oh during a week-end retreat. This is kind of time capsule film. There are little touches of originality here and there, but John Sayles’ first film will be probably of little interest to anyone for other than that reason.
Last Flag Flying (2018) - Linklater
Linklater does some difficult things with this road movie; like jump starting a drama between some men who have no real connections with each other, apart from having spent a few months together when they were 21. It quite rightly points out the absurdity of murderers screaming the magical incantation that will automatically swing open the locked gates of paradise “Hallelujah! God is da bomb!” It’s not overt, but the film suggests that granting instant martyrdom to anyone who dies in an American military uniform is about the same level of tribal superstition. There’s some tradecraft here, the average Vietnam vet still alive today would be about 80 years old; so all those walkers and oxygen tanks disappear for cinematic purposes.
The Girl (2012) - Riker
A character study about an embittered young woman, working as a cashier in a big box store, living in a trailer park after her child (for legitimate reasons) was taken away from her by the Texas DFPS. She feels the world has a grudge against her; with a little scratch all her worries and wants would be over in a heartbeat. Then she meets some people with bigger problems then her own. This is a kind of a quiet, redemptive tale.
The Doll (1919) - Lubtisch
A lot of the double entendres still work in this hundred year old silent film, about a confirmed bachelor who marries a life-sized doll in order to win his inheritance.
Beyond the Clouds (1995) - Antonioni
Four stories about couples either falling into, or out of love---or not. The film doesn’t quite work for the most part, and I’ll be the first one to admit this is pretentious shight--- but it has its moments. Although debilitated from a massive stroke, 83 year old Antonioni’s grasp of the material or the glint in his eye was still present in certain scenes. Robbie Müller and Wim Wenders stood in the background ready to assist, just in case. The locations, the starlets and the sets were gorgeous.
Valmont (1989) - Forman
There is a totally different spin from tragedy of Dangerous Liaisons which notoriously came out of the gate ahead of this version and still overshadows it to this day. There is nothing remotely tragic at party central Paris, circa 1780. Valmont duels stumbling down drunk; a 14 year old (Fairuza Balk with her astonished eyes) comes straight from a religious convent and finds herself smack dab in the middle of Satyricon. This would have worked even better had it been taken even more in the direction of a bedroom farce.
★★★
Hearts beat loud (2018) - Haley
This father-daughter drama is interesting in what doesn’t happen, it kind of sets up and suggests all kinds of things, but the movie always goes sideways to the understated choice. This is kind of a golden hour film with things coming to an end one by one, in the summer before his daughter heads off to the UCLA on the road to becoming a doctor.
Man up (2015) - Palmer
There is a nice spin to this low-budget, British rom-com. The two leads are kind of sweet and totally desperate at the same time. When he walks up to her in the train station and says: are you my blind date? After a slight hesitation (she has actually met the annoying young woman who is the actual object of his intended affection) she says uh … yeah. She is replacing a 24 year old triathlete---she clearly doesn’t look it, but he doesn’t really press the matter---he is already off and running with his own agenda. And they almost make it through the date before the bottom falls out, but by then, there are enough entanglements and complications to keep them together for the romantic finish.
Irma Vep (1996) - Assayas
A Hong Kong action star gets astonishingly the lead role in a French re-make of an old silent film (Irma Vep is an anagram for the Vampires, a secret criminal organization) Everything is repeated to her in English, yet when she interacts with people in the street, she speaks French so she may be privy to everything that is deliberately being mistranslated for her. This is a troubled shoot from the start—with everyone is operating just below open panic. There is an active rumour mill and a lot of in-fighting and jealousy amongst the crew members. I couldn’t help smiling when Lou Castel showed up as an unemployed director; who would actually prefer spending his days in bistros and sidewalk cafés and keeping his unemployment checks rather than signing onto this train wreck. There are a lot of great movie making in-jokes here.
The Salt of the Earth (2014) - Wenders & Salgado
A portrait of the Brazilian social photographer Sebastião Salgado filmed by his son and Wim Wenders. Trained to be an economist, the photographer knows exactly where all the bodies are (about to be) buried and trains his lens on the invisible people who flee the torrents of (highly profitable) war and market plunder. The mass migrations (parades of anguish) of the poor, who are also citizens in the global economy, yet pay exclusively the full price for that great luxury; like watching their children wither away and die of starvation before their eyes.
Let the Sunshine in (2017) - Denis
This is a character study of the weepy, romantic tribulations of successful painter. She is a lion at the travelling exhibitions, vernissages and Art festivals; but in her personal life, she is definitely romantically challenged. When her marriage ends, she thinks she will simply trade-up to a more luxurious model, but discovers only slim pickings’ out there in the 50+ singles market. She staunchly defends her parade of serial lovers to her circle of friends when they attack how feeble her choices are, yet the next time she hooks up with them, inevitably she rejects her new boyfriends with those same criticisms.
Won’t you be my Neighbor? (2018) - Neville
“The most essential things in life are invisible to the eye.”
This is a portrait (some would say unabashed tearjerker) of the children’s program host, Fred Rogers. The same week he was about to become an ordained minister, a thing called television suddenly appeared and be thought instead of television being used to mangle innocent minds with sugary breakfast cereals and toys. A children’s program could be used instead to install a sense of well-being and a sense of being loved for its young audience. This might work better on the small screen; at times, the image was really grainy on the big screen.
Eye of God (1997) - Nelson
A small town crime film; the staggered time lines keeps the story moving forward towards its foretold conclusion. Martha Plimpton doesn’t do her usual chick schtick, but plays a young woman where treasured items like a little home and loving family with 2.4 kids and a scot terrier may be beyond her reach.
Gasman (1998) Ramsay
A daughter spends some quality time with her (estranged?) father in this 15 minute short film. Another little boy and girl join up with them at the train tracks and tag along with them to the Christmas party at the local pub. She is immediately displaced during the party when the other little girl goes to the men’s drinking table and crawls onto her father’s lap and calls him Daddy. There is a sense of gravitas--- that moment will irreparably affect her relationship with him for the rest of her life.
Personal Shopper (2016) - Assayas
The two parts of the story complement nicely one another. The story begins on the 93rd day since her brother’s death. They were both mediums---he being the more gifted, and he had promised, if he died first, he would send a clear sign to her from the afterlife. She is only hanging around Paris for that sign. This is contrasted with her wraith like presence in her day job, shopping for a super model no longer able to go out in public without causing a mob scene. Being arepresentation of the model, everyone wants to connect with her on the off chance they will eventually meet the star; but everyone who has actually spent any time with the model prefers dealing with her because the model is such a malefic witch in real life. The CGI is a little overdone; illustrating the plot points removes the mystery.
Neo Ned (2005) - Fischer
This tragic life story kind of works because our hero is a disneyfied version of the violent, deranged bigot--- he is merely excitable and energetic with good intentions. All the staff and social workers around him understand he is always acting out. Neo wouldn’t know a loving, healthy family environment if it goose-stepped up to him and kicked him in the ass. His life changes for the better when he strolls into the day room (court ordered stay) at his local mental health facility and there sits a dark haired beauty who believes der Führer has been reincarnated in her body.
Wasp (2003) Andrea Arnold
Gidget goes on a date. Our heroine doesn’t have a lot of options in this 26 minute short film. So when she bumps into someone with romantic potential from her past and no one to babysit her kids, she has little choice but to drag them along with her and do spot checks during her date at the local pub. Funny thing is, I don’t think she was a bad mother: she is doing all that is humanly possible. Where was the day care for this woman? Where was the invisible helping hand of society? You try caring for four young children all alone, and see how long you last; it’s only a matter of hours before you begin to pull your hair out.
Chicken with plums (2011) - Satrapi & Paronnaud
There is a definite Amelie vibe to this tale of unrequited love about a great musician, who returns home after a life-time of travelling the world as a violin virtuoso and bumps into the woman he has loved all his life (and forbidden to marry her as a young man) and discovers she doesn’t even remember his name and he decides right there, that life is no longer worth living. Despite being narrated by Azazel (the angel of death) this is kind of life affirming and cute.
★★★½
Floride (2015) - Le Guay
The film covers about the same territory as Still Alice, whereas that character was conscious of the point of no return and tried to prepare herself; he has shuffled past the red line in his pyjamas and is now merely eccentric and forgetful; the film catalogs his remaining moments of lucidity and confusion. The film is really difficult in that it never states its themes. There is a flashback where number two daughter appears briefly before heading off somewhere more important---clearly too busy in her own life to spare any time for him and he has misplaced the memory where she died about 9 years ago. Always focusing on her immanent return, she becomes the good daughter in his mind, not the ungrateful one always annoying him with her petty grievances. Late in the film we see him completely flummoxed by a sweater, then a reverse to his daughter down the driveway watching him fight that unexpected brain teaser. This reveals---although he is on-screen most of the time--- that she is the actual protagonist of the film; and in her undying filial devotion, she allows him these fleeting moments, sacrificing her own happiness and well-being in the process.
Somersault (2004) - Shortland
After a major bust-up with her mom, Heidi decides to run away from home. The only thing she has in a purse is a business card from a man who once gave her a brand new parka (for sex) and said, ‘Hey, if you’re ever in town babe, call me up.” She steps off the bus, only to have him tell her to never ever call him again, click. With nowhere else to go, and the last of her money gone, she decides to make a go of it alone in this tourist town. She leads with her heart and has a precocious sexuality that men can’t resist; she misreads attention for affection so true connections are a shimmering mirage. There are lots of poetic scenes but there is also a feeling of unease and menace here; the way this 16 year old skirts absolute tragedy, she definitely treads where angels fear to go.
★★★★
Paris, Texas * (1984) - Wenders
The open desert and the urban sprawl in this film seem to be mirror images of one another where aimless wandering (or aimless cruising) is the only possibility. Its evocative his brother sells billboard space, which disorient the travellers rather than pointing them towards the true treasures in their lives. In every single frame in the film one can actually see and measure the emotional distance between the characters, taking tentative baby steps towards or running away with great galloping strides.
Fish Tank * (2009) - Arnold
I liked the symbol of death in the riderless white horse; no escape is possible, no prince charming is ever going to touch her with a ten foot pole. This was informed by Arnold’s Wuthering Heights, where unavoidable tragedy is locked in from the outset. The hero there was not raised up, but laid low and crushed by hatred and brutality. The housing project here is just as forbidding as the rain-swept Moors. The deprivation and violence of poverty are born by the poor until they are crippled intellectually and emotionally; then blamed for their own despair and ignorance. It’s almost too horrible to contemplate, what a ticket to a modern dance recital or a ballet would have meant to this young woman, discovering another world out there would have changed her life; instead of trying to decipher a way out of dead-end situations from twerking fly girls on music videos.
Beast (2017) - Pearce
“You’re wounded … I can fix that”
There is a great backdrop to this emancipation story in this seaside town where just below the surface, everyone is quietly going bananas. Her younger sister steals the heroine’s thunder by announcing her engagement at her birthday party, but in the excitement and momentary confusion, she takes advantage to make her own great escape; a belated first night of clubbing (despite being in her mid-twenties) where she meets a person of interest. A young woman goes missing then is discovered buried in a shallow grave---and several other past cases are unearthed---with a serial killer on the loose, all the quiet chaos is brought to the surface. Anyone slightly odd or different is suspect. Any strange man accidently coming within a hundred meters of a playground is in danger of being beaten unconscious by self-appointed vigilantes. The cops are under enormous pressure to close the case yesterday, even if that means simply stitching up some totally innocent fool defenceless against the juggernaut of law and disorder.
Sliding Doors (1998) - Howitt
One wonders how a story exploring how life spins completely on chance could be so … utterly predictable and boring; a b-movie, break-up story with no life shattering consequences---even for the people involved. Way, way back in the day when Gwyneth Paltrow was the reigning movie queen with her posh British accent.
400 Days (2015) - Osterman
A private corporation wants to do a dry run for their first commercial trip to Mars with a deep flight simulation. Living in a weightless environment for 14 months would turn your body into complete jelly, and tasks like simply standing up would be impossible once you returned to earth However, they merely bury their astronauts 3 meters underground for the same amount of time, avoiding the entire problem and making it instead, a nonsensical isolation experiment. I couldn’t buy into the silliness.
★★
The Hippopotamus (2017) - Jencks
An ex-poet, soon to be ex-critic hits rock bottom is when he is sent to review a terrible Shakespeare play (cleared inspired by the film 300---sprayed on abdominals and cod-pieces) and begins to correct their diction aloud until the enraged actor/director leaps from the stage and charges him in the audience. This alcoholic curmudgeon doesn’t stay amongst unemployed for long and is immediately pressed into service as a debunker of miracles happening on an English Estate. Poetry equips you for this? The only attraction here is the bitchy dialogue.
Train to Busan (2016) - Yeon
This film explains the proliferation of Zombie films; they have completely devolved into paint by number affairs that can be churned out like sausages. The only real hitch is finding a producer willing to underwrite the next opus in special effects makeup. Case in point, a character in the film actually states the dramatic problem of the film: the hero is an amoral, financial flesh-eater making everyone around him totally miserable; late in the film it’s revealed his company was responsible for the outbreak, but other than that, there is not actual ounce of dramatic development on this front for the entire film. Merely subtracting characters from the plot simulates perfectly a satisfying, dramatic resolution of the story---which it isn’t.
★★½
Return of the Secaucus Seven (1979) - Sayles
The director takes some summer stock actors he was working with and slots them into a film about a group of former college students commemorating turning the big three-oh during a week-end retreat. This is kind of time capsule film. There are little touches of originality here and there, but John Sayles’ first film will be probably of little interest to anyone for other than that reason.
Last Flag Flying (2018) - Linklater
Linklater does some difficult things with this road movie; like jump starting a drama between some men who have no real connections with each other, apart from having spent a few months together when they were 21. It quite rightly points out the absurdity of murderers screaming the magical incantation that will automatically swing open the locked gates of paradise “Hallelujah! God is da bomb!” It’s not overt, but the film suggests that granting instant martyrdom to anyone who dies in an American military uniform is about the same level of tribal superstition. There’s some tradecraft here, the average Vietnam vet still alive today would be about 80 years old; so all those walkers and oxygen tanks disappear for cinematic purposes.
The Girl (2012) - Riker
A character study about an embittered young woman, working as a cashier in a big box store, living in a trailer park after her child (for legitimate reasons) was taken away from her by the Texas DFPS. She feels the world has a grudge against her; with a little scratch all her worries and wants would be over in a heartbeat. Then she meets some people with bigger problems then her own. This is a kind of a quiet, redemptive tale.
The Doll (1919) - Lubtisch
A lot of the double entendres still work in this hundred year old silent film, about a confirmed bachelor who marries a life-sized doll in order to win his inheritance.
Beyond the Clouds (1995) - Antonioni
Four stories about couples either falling into, or out of love---or not. The film doesn’t quite work for the most part, and I’ll be the first one to admit this is pretentious shight--- but it has its moments. Although debilitated from a massive stroke, 83 year old Antonioni’s grasp of the material or the glint in his eye was still present in certain scenes. Robbie Müller and Wim Wenders stood in the background ready to assist, just in case. The locations, the starlets and the sets were gorgeous.
Valmont (1989) - Forman
There is a totally different spin from tragedy of Dangerous Liaisons which notoriously came out of the gate ahead of this version and still overshadows it to this day. There is nothing remotely tragic at party central Paris, circa 1780. Valmont duels stumbling down drunk; a 14 year old (Fairuza Balk with her astonished eyes) comes straight from a religious convent and finds herself smack dab in the middle of Satyricon. This would have worked even better had it been taken even more in the direction of a bedroom farce.
★★★
Hearts beat loud (2018) - Haley
This father-daughter drama is interesting in what doesn’t happen, it kind of sets up and suggests all kinds of things, but the movie always goes sideways to the understated choice. This is kind of a golden hour film with things coming to an end one by one, in the summer before his daughter heads off to the UCLA on the road to becoming a doctor.
Man up (2015) - Palmer
There is a nice spin to this low-budget, British rom-com. The two leads are kind of sweet and totally desperate at the same time. When he walks up to her in the train station and says: are you my blind date? After a slight hesitation (she has actually met the annoying young woman who is the actual object of his intended affection) she says uh … yeah. She is replacing a 24 year old triathlete---she clearly doesn’t look it, but he doesn’t really press the matter---he is already off and running with his own agenda. And they almost make it through the date before the bottom falls out, but by then, there are enough entanglements and complications to keep them together for the romantic finish.
Irma Vep (1996) - Assayas
A Hong Kong action star gets astonishingly the lead role in a French re-make of an old silent film (Irma Vep is an anagram for the Vampires, a secret criminal organization) Everything is repeated to her in English, yet when she interacts with people in the street, she speaks French so she may be privy to everything that is deliberately being mistranslated for her. This is a troubled shoot from the start—with everyone is operating just below open panic. There is an active rumour mill and a lot of in-fighting and jealousy amongst the crew members. I couldn’t help smiling when Lou Castel showed up as an unemployed director; who would actually prefer spending his days in bistros and sidewalk cafés and keeping his unemployment checks rather than signing onto this train wreck. There are a lot of great movie making in-jokes here.
The Salt of the Earth (2014) - Wenders & Salgado
A portrait of the Brazilian social photographer Sebastião Salgado filmed by his son and Wim Wenders. Trained to be an economist, the photographer knows exactly where all the bodies are (about to be) buried and trains his lens on the invisible people who flee the torrents of (highly profitable) war and market plunder. The mass migrations (parades of anguish) of the poor, who are also citizens in the global economy, yet pay exclusively the full price for that great luxury; like watching their children wither away and die of starvation before their eyes.
Let the Sunshine in (2017) - Denis
This is a character study of the weepy, romantic tribulations of successful painter. She is a lion at the travelling exhibitions, vernissages and Art festivals; but in her personal life, she is definitely romantically challenged. When her marriage ends, she thinks she will simply trade-up to a more luxurious model, but discovers only slim pickings’ out there in the 50+ singles market. She staunchly defends her parade of serial lovers to her circle of friends when they attack how feeble her choices are, yet the next time she hooks up with them, inevitably she rejects her new boyfriends with those same criticisms.
Won’t you be my Neighbor? (2018) - Neville
“The most essential things in life are invisible to the eye.”
This is a portrait (some would say unabashed tearjerker) of the children’s program host, Fred Rogers. The same week he was about to become an ordained minister, a thing called television suddenly appeared and be thought instead of television being used to mangle innocent minds with sugary breakfast cereals and toys. A children’s program could be used instead to install a sense of well-being and a sense of being loved for its young audience. This might work better on the small screen; at times, the image was really grainy on the big screen.
Eye of God (1997) - Nelson
A small town crime film; the staggered time lines keeps the story moving forward towards its foretold conclusion. Martha Plimpton doesn’t do her usual chick schtick, but plays a young woman where treasured items like a little home and loving family with 2.4 kids and a scot terrier may be beyond her reach.
Gasman (1998) Ramsay
A daughter spends some quality time with her (estranged?) father in this 15 minute short film. Another little boy and girl join up with them at the train tracks and tag along with them to the Christmas party at the local pub. She is immediately displaced during the party when the other little girl goes to the men’s drinking table and crawls onto her father’s lap and calls him Daddy. There is a sense of gravitas--- that moment will irreparably affect her relationship with him for the rest of her life.
Personal Shopper (2016) - Assayas
The two parts of the story complement nicely one another. The story begins on the 93rd day since her brother’s death. They were both mediums---he being the more gifted, and he had promised, if he died first, he would send a clear sign to her from the afterlife. She is only hanging around Paris for that sign. This is contrasted with her wraith like presence in her day job, shopping for a super model no longer able to go out in public without causing a mob scene. Being arepresentation of the model, everyone wants to connect with her on the off chance they will eventually meet the star; but everyone who has actually spent any time with the model prefers dealing with her because the model is such a malefic witch in real life. The CGI is a little overdone; illustrating the plot points removes the mystery.
Neo Ned (2005) - Fischer
This tragic life story kind of works because our hero is a disneyfied version of the violent, deranged bigot--- he is merely excitable and energetic with good intentions. All the staff and social workers around him understand he is always acting out. Neo wouldn’t know a loving, healthy family environment if it goose-stepped up to him and kicked him in the ass. His life changes for the better when he strolls into the day room (court ordered stay) at his local mental health facility and there sits a dark haired beauty who believes der Führer has been reincarnated in her body.
Wasp (2003) Andrea Arnold
Gidget goes on a date. Our heroine doesn’t have a lot of options in this 26 minute short film. So when she bumps into someone with romantic potential from her past and no one to babysit her kids, she has little choice but to drag them along with her and do spot checks during her date at the local pub. Funny thing is, I don’t think she was a bad mother: she is doing all that is humanly possible. Where was the day care for this woman? Where was the invisible helping hand of society? You try caring for four young children all alone, and see how long you last; it’s only a matter of hours before you begin to pull your hair out.
Chicken with plums (2011) - Satrapi & Paronnaud
There is a definite Amelie vibe to this tale of unrequited love about a great musician, who returns home after a life-time of travelling the world as a violin virtuoso and bumps into the woman he has loved all his life (and forbidden to marry her as a young man) and discovers she doesn’t even remember his name and he decides right there, that life is no longer worth living. Despite being narrated by Azazel (the angel of death) this is kind of life affirming and cute.
★★★½
Floride (2015) - Le Guay
The film covers about the same territory as Still Alice, whereas that character was conscious of the point of no return and tried to prepare herself; he has shuffled past the red line in his pyjamas and is now merely eccentric and forgetful; the film catalogs his remaining moments of lucidity and confusion. The film is really difficult in that it never states its themes. There is a flashback where number two daughter appears briefly before heading off somewhere more important---clearly too busy in her own life to spare any time for him and he has misplaced the memory where she died about 9 years ago. Always focusing on her immanent return, she becomes the good daughter in his mind, not the ungrateful one always annoying him with her petty grievances. Late in the film we see him completely flummoxed by a sweater, then a reverse to his daughter down the driveway watching him fight that unexpected brain teaser. This reveals---although he is on-screen most of the time--- that she is the actual protagonist of the film; and in her undying filial devotion, she allows him these fleeting moments, sacrificing her own happiness and well-being in the process.
Somersault (2004) - Shortland
After a major bust-up with her mom, Heidi decides to run away from home. The only thing she has in a purse is a business card from a man who once gave her a brand new parka (for sex) and said, ‘Hey, if you’re ever in town babe, call me up.” She steps off the bus, only to have him tell her to never ever call him again, click. With nowhere else to go, and the last of her money gone, she decides to make a go of it alone in this tourist town. She leads with her heart and has a precocious sexuality that men can’t resist; she misreads attention for affection so true connections are a shimmering mirage. There are lots of poetic scenes but there is also a feeling of unease and menace here; the way this 16 year old skirts absolute tragedy, she definitely treads where angels fear to go.
★★★★
Paris, Texas * (1984) - Wenders
The open desert and the urban sprawl in this film seem to be mirror images of one another where aimless wandering (or aimless cruising) is the only possibility. Its evocative his brother sells billboard space, which disorient the travellers rather than pointing them towards the true treasures in their lives. In every single frame in the film one can actually see and measure the emotional distance between the characters, taking tentative baby steps towards or running away with great galloping strides.
Fish Tank * (2009) - Arnold
I liked the symbol of death in the riderless white horse; no escape is possible, no prince charming is ever going to touch her with a ten foot pole. This was informed by Arnold’s Wuthering Heights, where unavoidable tragedy is locked in from the outset. The hero there was not raised up, but laid low and crushed by hatred and brutality. The housing project here is just as forbidding as the rain-swept Moors. The deprivation and violence of poverty are born by the poor until they are crippled intellectually and emotionally; then blamed for their own despair and ignorance. It’s almost too horrible to contemplate, what a ticket to a modern dance recital or a ballet would have meant to this young woman, discovering another world out there would have changed her life; instead of trying to decipher a way out of dead-end situations from twerking fly girls on music videos.
Beast (2017) - Pearce
“You’re wounded … I can fix that”
There is a great backdrop to this emancipation story in this seaside town where just below the surface, everyone is quietly going bananas. Her younger sister steals the heroine’s thunder by announcing her engagement at her birthday party, but in the excitement and momentary confusion, she takes advantage to make her own great escape; a belated first night of clubbing (despite being in her mid-twenties) where she meets a person of interest. A young woman goes missing then is discovered buried in a shallow grave---and several other past cases are unearthed---with a serial killer on the loose, all the quiet chaos is brought to the surface. Anyone slightly odd or different is suspect. Any strange man accidently coming within a hundred meters of a playground is in danger of being beaten unconscious by self-appointed vigilantes. The cops are under enormous pressure to close the case yesterday, even if that means simply stitching up some totally innocent fool defenceless against the juggernaut of law and disorder.
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